(FILE PHOTO)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 17) A Department of Health official on Wednesday warned the Philippines COVID-19 cases may increase by 28 times after a month if variants of concern become dominant in the country.
So far, variants of concern have only been detected in less than 6.6% of the samples sequenced by the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center and the UP National Institutes of Health, according to Dr. Alethea de Guzman, medical specialist at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau.
But if these variants are found in all future samples, De Guzman said infections can become 28 times higher than the current number in just a month. She warned such a grim milestone would truly overwhelm our health system.
Published March 14, 2021, 5:41 PM
DAVAO CITY – Before the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic over a year ago, health authorities here announced that they were monitoring travelers from China following the outbreak of a “mysterious disease.” On Jan. 7, 2020, Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Abdullah Dumama bared in a press conference that while there was no ban imposed on travelers from China, they were told by the DOH Central Office in Manila to closely monitor travelers from China.
“We were told by the Secretary (Francisco Duque III) that we need to be screening and tightly monitoring those coming from China,” he said.
The Department of Health, with the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center and the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health, on Saturday confirmed that one case of COVID-19 had the P.1 variant which was first detected in Brazil, in a returning overseas Filipino from Western Visayas. It also said the UK variant was found in 59 new COVID-19 cases while the South Africa variant was found in 32 additional cases. The.
Authorities detected the new variant of coronavirus known as P.3 from majority of samples coming from Central Visayas, the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) said.
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